When President Donald Trump selected Ed Martin, the Missouri lawyer and political operative, to be the highest U.S. lawyer for Washington, D.C., the choice got here as a shock to present and former federal prosecutors in addition to outdoors authorized consultants. Martin had no prosecutorial expertise. He was finest generally known as a conservative activist, the previous right-hand man to influential anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly and a loyal Trump surrogate.

Since taking cost of the workplace in January, Martin has launched controversial investigations, rushed to defend Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity and vowed to vary how his workplace prosecutes crime within the District of Columbia.

His actions have been met with fierce pushback from Democratic lawmakers, watchdog teams and authorized consultants. There have been at the least 4 disciplinary complaints filed towards him with the D.C. and Missouri bars. One of many D.C. complaints has been dismissed; the opposite three seem like pending. If Martin has responded to the complaints, his statements haven’t been made public.

Martin didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.

Listed here are a few of Martin’s most contentious strikes thus far.

Jan. 6 Retribution

At Trump’s path, Martin has presided over the dismissal of excellent circumstances that have been a part of the Justice Division’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on the Capitol.

However Martin received tripped up by what ought to have been a authorized formality: In one of many circumstances he dismissed, he was nonetheless listed as counsel of report for the defendant, a attainable battle of curiosity. The incident prompted bar complaints towards Martin in D.C. and Missouri. (The D.C. bar’s disciplinary panel dismissed the criticism, saying Martin had been appearing on the behest of the president. The Missouri criticism seems to be pending.)

Martin fired greater than a dozen federal prosecutors who labored on Jan. 6 circumstances. He demoted seven senior attorneys in his workplace, together with the 2 prosecutors who led the Jan. 6 crew, to low-level roles in D.C. Superior Courtroom, which handles native prosecutions. (A lot of the affected attorneys haven’t commented publicly, however those that have are vital of Martin’s tenure.)

Martin has opened an investigation into supposed leaks associated to Jan. 6 circumstances, saying the knowledge was used “by the media and partisans as misinformation.” He additionally ordered an investigation into previous charging selections made as a part of the Jan. 6 circumstances. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned the DOJ’s use of an obstruction statute in these prosecutions. In an office-wide e mail obtained by ProPublica, Martin quoted an unnamed contact who in contrast the DOJ’s use of the obstruction statute to President Franklin Roosevelt’s resolution to imprison greater than 100,000 Japanese Individuals in internment camps throughout World Conflict II.

DOGE Enforcer

Martin has printed a number of open letters to Musk on the Musk-owned social media platform X.

Within the first letter, dated Feb. 3, Martin requested Musk to “make the most of me and my employees” to guard the folks and the work of DOGE. He vowed to take “any and all authorized motion towards anybody” who impeded DOGE’s work.

“We is not going to act just like the earlier administration,” Martin added, “who appeared the opposite approach because the Antifa and BLM rioters in addition to thugs with weapons trashed our capital metropolis.”

In his second letter, dated Feb. 7, Martin expanded on his pledge to his workplace’s authorized powers in assist of Musk and DOGE’s work. “Please let me reiterate once more: If persons are found to have damaged the legislation and even acted merely unethically, we are going to examine them and we are going to chase them to the top of the Earth to carry them accountable,” Martin wrote.

He urged his staff to answer Musk’s demand that every one federal staff checklist 5 issues they achieved that week, including: “DOGE and Elon are doing nice work! Historic.”

And when DOGE staff tried to grab management of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a personal nonprofit that receives authorities funding, Martin and his workplace assisted in order that DOGE may take over and wind down the nonprofit.

“We Will Defend You”

The U.S. lawyer’s workplace for D.C. is exclusive in that it prosecutes each federal and native crimes. In his tweets and public statements, Martin has vowed to “Make D.C. Secure Once more,” although violent crime has broadly declined within the District lately.

Whereas his public security agenda is mild on particulars thus far, he has pledged to be a stalwart defender of the D.C. police. In yet one more open letter posted on X, Martin wrote that the “radical ‘Defund the Police’ motion by Black Lives Matter is over” and that it was “time to get again to defending and supporting our legislation enforcement officers.”

“At each flip, we are going to defend you,” he stated.

But present and former federal prosecutors in D.C. say Martin’s actions thus far have undercut morale within the workplace whereas his proposed reforms may make it more durable, not simpler, for prosecutors to do their jobs.

In February, Martin eliminated the chief and deputy chief of the Federal Main Crimes part, which oversees circumstances involving medicine, firearms possession, little one exploitation, human trafficking and immigration violations. The 2 attorneys, who had a long time of expertise between them and have been extensively revered, have been demoted to low-level roles; the extra senior of the 2, Melissa Jackson, resigned quickly afterward. (Jackson declined to remark; her deputy didn’t reply to requests for remark.)

Martin additionally stated he was “rewriting” the workplace’s coverage for the so-called Lewis checklist, a repository of police officer disciplinary data. Prosecutors seek the advice of the Lewis database once they determine whether or not to place a police officer on the witness stand. Additionally they use the Lewis checklist to determine officers about whom they should disclose info to protection attorneys that bears on a witness’s credibility or potential bias to satisfy their constitutional obligations.

Martin framed his resolution to reform the Lewis checklist as a part of a broader shift to be extra pro-police. “USAO will not enable judges or others to gratuitously harm your careers due to the outsized impression of inexact characterizations,” he wrote.

Michael Romano, a former federal prosecutor within the D.C. workplace, stated that any effort to weaken or eradicate the Lewis checklist will solely make it more durable for prosecutors to argue and win circumstances as a result of it will deprive them of knowledge that they have to disclose in court docket. “Gutting the Lewis checklist,” Romano instructed ProPublica, “makes it much less possible that prosecutors will acquire convictions at trial, makes it extra possible that convictions shall be reversed on enchantment and places prosecutors’ licenses to apply legislation in danger.”

Investigating Democrats

Martin has initiated a number of inquiries into critics and opponents of Trump.

Martin requested Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., for details about a enterprise that Vindman and his brother, Alexander, began to assist Ukraine in its warfare towards Russia, The Washington Put up reported. Vindman and his twin brother, Alex, each blew the whistle on Trump’s try to withhold navy help to Ukraine whereas pressuring the nation’s chief to analyze the household of President Joe Biden. Eugene Vindman stated that Martin’s letter was a part of Trump’s “retribution marketing campaign” and that those that wrote the letter and “inspired this bizarre try at intimidation are mendacity.”

Biden’s members of the family and former officers from his administration obtained letters from Martin’s workplace associated to the ex-president’s resolution to grant pardons to folks near him, The New York Instances reported. Trump has pushed an unproven principle that Biden’s actions weren’t legitimate as a result of he wasn’t mentally competent.

He additionally despatched letters to Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, each Democrats, asking them to reply questions on incendiary public feedback they’d made. The inquiries appeared to have fizzled out and didn’t lead to any expenses.

Focusing on Medical Journals

On Apr. 14, Martin despatched an inventory of inquiries to the editor of Chest journal, a medical journal printed by the American Faculty of Chest Physicians. The letter accused the journal and others prefer it of “being partisans in numerous scientific debates” and requested a collection of contentious questions, similar to “How do you clearly articulate when you may have sure viewpoints which can be influenced by your ongoing relations with supporters, funders, advertisers, and others?” and “How do you deal with allegations that authors of works in your journals might have misled readers?”

Two different medical journal publishers obtained comparable letters, The New York Instances reported. The letters have raised grave considerations about curbing free speech and authorities intimidation of scientific publications.